Losing Control of Your TV 633
sp00 writes "The MPAA is now trying to prevent high quality copies made from TV broadcasts. The latest anti-piracy move will prevent you from making high-quality copies of broadcast TV programs. And the new "broadcast flag" technology enables all manner of other restrictions. In the future, the Motion Picture Association of America will control your television set."
Wait a second (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Wait a second (Score:5, Insightful)
And legally, the MPAA doesn't control anything. They're a lobbying group. They control things illegally.
Re:Wait a second (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wait a second (Score:4, Insightful)
Reduce the size of the pie, and the incentive to bribe government will disappear. Lobbying groups only attempt to bribe government because they know it works.
Re:Wait a second (Score:5, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Wait a second (Score:5, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Wait a second (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't buy it. Set the broadcast flag so I can't TiVo my shows anymore and I'm still not going to buy the DVD's, I'm less likely to because I won't "get into" the show in the first place. Major networks will have to rely on me remembering to be home and tuned to their channel when that show who's commercial or write up caught my eye two weeks ago; trust me, that aint going to happen. Instead, I'll go back to watching the discovery channels, FoodTV, Infomercials, oddball cartoons, etc., like I did in the days before Tivo. I'll bitch about their repetivness, though I imagine its a lot better now that there's 40 different Discovery channels. No, if anything this will increase teh need for cable, because I need more options when *I* watch TV, not during that 3 hour band that TV exec's consider "Prime Time". Fun stuff like Myth Buster's, or Iron Chef, or those insane knife auctioning guys (Havent watched them hawk their "collector's knife sets" since I got Tivo).
Here's my idea. If the MPAA is concerned about piracy because of HDTV, don't show the damned movie on TV. If I want to watch a movie these days, I go to block buster, or I'll buy the DVD. Or I watch it on HBO. The damned pirates will just rent the DVD and rip it from there anyway, I doubt they are concerned about getting those last bits of resolution an specially preped HDTV movie copy (1024i vs 480i, I see no reason to convert a 24fps movie to 60fps video) before they compress it down to VCD quality anyway. So unless they movie studios are planning on abandoning the installed base of DVD owners the broadcast flag does them almost 0 good anyway. I imagine given a choice between paying for technology to cripple their TV viewing habits and not watching the content of overly paranoid movie studios, 80% of Americans would opt to pass on the extra content and watch my Big Fat Obnoxious Bride
And here's the kicker. This technology has already been rolled out; check out the MiniDisc player. Now, check out its secret implications: Record your Wedding toast on you're digital MiniDisc recorder, and it will do you the favor of enabling the "do not copy" bit for you. After all, it can't tell that you own all the rights to your speech, so to be safe it assumes you don't (else you could make unlimited digital copies after having gone through just 1 D>A>D conversion, and that would be downright un-American.
Re:Wait a second (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Wait a second (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, almost everything. When I hear about a good show, I watch it on DVD. Like the Sopranos. I can watch the whole season in a few nights. Netflix. $20/month. Only stuff I want. No commercials. There is zero reason to buy into TV anymore.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Dunno about your TV (Score:5, Funny)
What about low-quality copies? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What about low-quality copies? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What about low-quality copies? (Score:5, Funny)
Where have you been? Of course there's something better. It's called Betamax [wikipedia.org].
Re:What about low-quality copies? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What about low-quality copies? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What about low-quality copies? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What about low-quality copies? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What about low-quality copies? (Score:5, Funny)
I dont think it works. I watched Hannibal thru it and it was still disturbing.
Re:What about low-quality copies? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What about low-quality copies? (Score:5, Informative)
From http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch
(a) A Covered Demodulator Product shall not pass, or direct to be passed,
Marked Content to any output except
(1) to an analog output;
(2) to an 8-VSB, 16-VSB, 64-QAM or 256-QAM modulated output, provided
that the Broadcast Flag is retained in the both the EIT and PMT;
(3) to a digital output protected by an Authorized Digital Output Protection
Technology, in accordance with any applicable obligations established as a part of its
approval pursuant to 73.9008;
(4) where such Covered Demodulator Product outputs, or directs to be output,
such content to another product and such Covered Demodulator Product exercises sole
control (such as by using a cryptographic protocol), in compliance with the Demodulator
Robustness Requirements, over the access to such content in usable form in such other
product;
(5) where such Covered Demodulator Product outputs, or directs to be output,
such content for the purpose of making a recording of such content pursuant to paragraph
(b)(2) of this section, where such content is protected by the corresponding recording
method; or
(6) where such Covered Demodulator Product is incorporated into a Computer
Product and passes, or directs to be passed, such content to an unprotected output
operating in a mode compatible with the Digital Visual Interface (DVI) Rev. 1.0
Specification as an image having the visual equivalent of no more than 350,000 pixels
per frame (e.g., an image with resolution of 720 x 480 pixels for a 4:3 (nonsquare pixel)
aspect ratio), and 30 frames per second. Such an image may be attained by reducing
resolution, such as by discarding, dithering or averaging pixels to obtain the specified
value, and can be displayed using video processing techniques such as line doubling or
sharpening to improve the perceived quality of the image.
Federal Communications Commission FCC 03-273
42
(b) A Covered Demodulator Product shall not record or cause the recording of
Marked Content in digital form unless such recording is made using one of the following
methods:
(1) a method that effectively and uniquely associates such recording with a single
Covered Demodulator Product (using a cryptographic protocol or other effective means)
so that such recording cannot be accessed in usable form by another product except
where the content of such recording is passed to another product as permitted under this
subpart or
(2) an Authorized Recording Method in accordance with any applicable
obligations established as a part of its approval pursuant to 73.9008 (provided that for
recordings made on removable media, only Authorized Recording Methods expressly
approved pursuant to 73.9008 for use in connection with removable media may be
used).
(c) Paragraph (b) of this section does not impose restrictions regarding the
storage of Marked Content as a Transitory Image.
(d) The requirements of this section shall become applicable on July 1, 2005.
-Alison
Re:What about low-quality copies? (Score:3, Informative)
Now, let's talk about DVD-R players. They could record digital TV bit-for-bit to the disc, but when it decodes the bitstream it'll be required to honor the broadcast flag and not output to digital outputs while doing so.
Basi
Thank our government for this! (Score:5, Insightful)
I realize this guy is sort of pushing the bullshit lines with controlling the OFF BUTTON and the MI sequence but I can actually see them banning you from timeshifting, etc. Look at some DVDs. You already can't skip some commercials on those. I can see it being that way on a rented movie but on one you purchased? That's bullshit.
HDTV was mandated by the government at YOUR expense so that these people could control YOUR choices. Make sure you thank them.
Re:Thank our government for this! (Score:5, Informative)
Actually when the studios first started putting trailers and stuff before the movies on dvd's they fixed it so you couldn't get around them. Especially the warning pages. But every new dvd I've rented over the past few months has allowed me to hit chapter forward to skip past them. Even the FBI warnings. It shows up but chapter forward decreases the time you have to sit there watching. You still can't just hit menu sometimes to jump past the trailers but you can skip them. Obviously not ideal but better than it used to be.
Re:Thank our government for this! (Score:5, Informative)
What's worse is that these are the retail disks, not rental. I've written a letter of complaint and won't be buying any Fox DVDs from now on.
Same goes for Disney and there Ad-DVDs.
Licensing Agreement (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Thank our government for this! (Score:5, Insightful)
Pop in a DVD, press play, and you are FORCED to watch the Piracy Warning, and the Company Name banners. Some previews are even hard to get past. This takes up to a few minutes for some DVD's.
You cannot fast forward.
You cannot rewind.
You cannot stop.
This kind of technology being suggested just serves to stop people from having any control over their TV's. Pretty soon I can easily see TV's that will not allow you to change the channel during commercials, mute the volume during commercials, or turn off without watching the last few commercials. It's already gotten to the point where some channels have decided to pad a 2 hour show to 3 hours by adding an additional hour of commercials.
And so far, no one is complaining. So sad.
This will not stop piracy, in my opinion, it will only make it worse. The forbidden fruit, so to speak.
When I buy DVD, it should begin playing the movie the instant I put it in the machine. I paid for it, it's mine. Commercials are fine on TV stations, because that is how they make their money, but not on my PAID FOR retail DVD.
Hollywood, MPAA, and RIAA are all a bunch of greedy bastards, IMO!
Re:Thank our government for this! (Score:5, Interesting)
...until I found a hacked firmware for my DVD player that makes it multiregion, disables macrovision, and allows my to skip past FBI warnings and the like... (also known as using MY DVD player with MY DVDs in any way I want...) Is it a DMCA violation? Probably... But the more people do this, the more obvious it is that this type of encumberment is NOT what the market wants.
Crossing Thin Lines (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Thank our government for this! (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah and next they're going to put in a battery backup so that even when you unplug it just keeps playing forever.
And then they'll make them so that it contains nano-bots that repair everything if you try to physically break the hardware.
[/tin foil hat]
Re:Thank our government for this! (Score:4, Funny)
Are you sure? (Score:5, Insightful)
Are you sure nobody is complaining? Sometimes, people don't "complain", they just silently change their purchasing/consuming habits. Haven't you seen the stories on Slashdot where people are spending time on the web or with video games, taking the time out of their television viewing?
That is even better than complaining.
DiVX, the Circuit City self-destructing DVD technology, in the end wasn't killed by geek complaints. It was killed by people who didn't buy it. (Sometimes, the "sheeple" aren't. "Sheeple" is mostly a term for feeling yourself superior anyhow, but I digress....) DVDs, IMHO, have already crossed the line of what people will tolerate, as evidenced by being forced to back down from forced previews to allowing people to skip them. Don't expect them to get any worse, or if they do, expect rapid punishment exacted on the offending studio by the market.
I'd not bet on it yet but it is a perfectly plausible outcome that by 2006 or 2007, no broadcaster will use the flag, because they can't afford the viewership loss! PVRs aren't going away over the next year. The Internet isn't going away. Video games certainly aren't going away. The optimal time for TV to pull this shit was about four years ago; now too many people have tasted the "forbidden fruit" of interactive media, especially PVRs, and many of them are already choosing to decrease their TV usage, before the TV industry implements the squeezing! (If you've got the disposable funds, buy your representatives a TiVo; that donation will probably have a greater effect then anything else you could do with the money.)
Oh, there's valid reason for concern and I still would like to see a lawsuit that labels this as unconstutitional restriction on our speech, and personally I find attempts to control viewers who aren't sharing effectively unethical [jerf.org]. The fight should be fought... but I'm pretty sure that in this arena, we've already won. The TV industry would like to think otherwise, but they are, in the end, dispensible now. Viable alternatives exist and most of them are one-way transitions for the people who try them; the television's only choice now is between declining slowly and maintaining a real but smaller existance, or throwing a hissy fit until we starve them as a society. (No laws necessary; we can't be forced to watch TV barring a sudden UK-like tax law.)
If they want control..... (Score:5, Funny)
If I don't own the TV set outright, I shouldn't have to pay $3000 for a plasma TV. I think I should only have to pay $3.
You do have control of the price (Score:5, Insightful)
If I don't own the TV set outright, I shouldn't have to pay $3000 for a plasma TV. I think I should only have to pay $3.
We (collectively) have complete control over the price. Do not buy an HDTV with these sorts of crippling features. I own an HDTV, which I use as a 61" computer monitor and DVD playback device. I own an HDTV (Linux PCI card) tuner which does allow digital recording. I will not purchase a device with these flags enabled.
If enough other videophiles are informed enough and smart enough to do likewise, the product will go the way of the original DIVX self-destructive DVDs
(There is a lot to be done on the content side to offer entertainment alternatives to the Corporate State's Bread and Circuses program, but Red v. Blue and other content online is already showing the way, and Blender et. al. put the tools in our hands to make our own high quality content. The rest is up to us).
Re:You do have control of the price (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:You do have control of the price (Score:5, Interesting)
Paying money for an HDTV isn't. The government can mandate that HDTV is offered, they can't mandate that we buy it.
Buy a computer monitor instead, and download your free, legal content online. Machinima, Blenderwars, assorted Povray sites, etc. are a good starting point.
Bored? Make your own TV show and disseminate it online. If you're good, maybe you'll be able to sell ad placements (Coke signs in the background a la Blade Runner, etc.) and make a living at it. If not, you have a cool hobby and are helping yourself and others choose a path different than that the thugs with the flack jackets and jack boots are ushering us toward.
pcHDTV is your friend (Score:5, Informative)
I use a PC HDTV [pchdtv.com] card. The drivers are free software (GPLed) and available online (they are v4l2 based, rather than v4l, but can be made to work with mythtv and xine-hd).
Buy 'em early and often
Wrong (Score:5, Insightful)
Wrong.
Early adopters are critical to a new product's success. If the videophiles, who are the early adopters of HDTV, do not buy the products, there is a good chance few others will.
Remember, not only do enthusiasts buy the expensive ("development-cost recouping") equipment, they are also the ones their friends and families turn to for advice on what to buy and what not to buy. Withholding their willingness to purchase will almost certainly be enough to kill obnoxious new products
This has already happened, with DAT tapes and divx DVD's. It can happen again with crippled HDTV
Don't kid yourself about the potential impact
Re:Wrong (Score:5, Interesting)
Ah, good ole days. That once was true. Television, and later color television, spread this way. Early adopters on both sides--folks taking a chance on some new gadget and folks taking a chance on providing content for that new gadget--set the path to a brave new world.
And for many years it worked. Color tv spread; AM stereo radio didn't. Market forces worked, and it was good.
Those days are gone. In the USA HDTV is law. Broadcasters have to broadcast it; manufacturers have to make it.
The market chose CD over DAT and DVD over DivX, but in this case there is no competing technology. If you don't want an HDTV, eventually your only option will be no TV at all.
BTW, if you're planning on buying in the USA a TV 36-inches or larger, and don't want to be forced to pay a few hundred dollars for HDTV hardware you don't need, butter buy before July 1 [pbs.org].
Re:If they want control..... (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps you should only have to pay $3 for a car, since you don't own it outright (you're restricted from changing it in certain ways).
What's different here, is who is restricting. With a car's emissions equipment, the restriction is placed upon you by everyone; we all (theoretically ;-) agree that it is in all our interests to limit pollution. So your neighbor isn't getting any more out of supressing your rights, than you are, also.
With the broadcast flag, it appears that the only party benefitted by the supression, is the MPAA. Thus, it's a blatantly corrupt law.
But they will then argue that it isn't true, because copyright law benefits us all, since it encourages the creation of works that we all enjoy.
The revolution will be televised... (Score:5, Funny)
Please check with the MPAA to acquire a license to view the revolution.
Re:If they want control..... (Score:3, Insightful)
I think this is a blessing in disguise, as it is I hardly watch any TV. Reality TV having hardly any reality. Melodramatic sitcoms ,too predictable and not remotely funny. MTV, please don't even get me started. Sportstars are more and more appearing in Legal courts than stadiums.
Heck even the national geographic and discovery channel programs seem over drama
Re:If they want control..... (Score:3, Funny)
Don't think you can turn it on and walk away, because we'll randomly make you hit buttons on the TV/remote to make sure you're watching. If you continously hit the button and try to screw our scheme, we'll penalize you by making you watch more!
Hard to do (Score:3, Insightful)
But... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:But... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:But... (Score:3, Insightful)
All they are doing (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:All they are doing (Score:5, Insightful)
My gf is actually pretty pissed off that I don't have cable. This interrupts her Reality TV bullshit with fuzz and intermittent loud buzzing. She can't understand why I am not ready to fork out $55/mo to watch what they feed us.
Ok, so back to the topic... People out there don't care about a broadcast flag. It's not going to affect them. It's just something else that they will hear about, shrug their shoulders, and say, "so?" Remember... We live in a time where people will vote for American Idol contestants (25+ million a week watch that shit) but we can't get anyone to vote for who runs our country. We also live in a time where people look at you crazy when you tell them that their freedoms are being infringed on.
Voting... (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm a proud voter, and I'm happy to see that more people are taking the 5 minutes required to do the same.
And as another post-er already pointed out, the failure of DivX based DVD players was a consumer shug-the-shoulders, "I wonder who would buy that," response. But those consumers did not buy that.
Re:All they are doing (Score:3, Funny)
Right. Next step: region-encoded AV input-output standards compliance for TVs and displays.
even simpler (Score:3, Funny)
It'll probably retail for $9.99 on the web.
That's until a college student figures out that all it takes to disable the DRM feature is holding the SHIFT key on your remote.
I can't wait for 'the flag'...
Can't change the dedicated crackers (Score:3, Insightful)
Something about this confuses me (Score:5, Funny)
It's the show (Score:5, Funny)
"In the future... (Score:5, Insightful)
At which point I won't have one.
There is something to be said for getting older and not giving a *&@# about keeping current as-far-as TV shows are concerned. I could'nt even tell you who is sleeping with who on Friends
BC
Re:"In the future... (Score:3, Insightful)
As long as we have pirated Movies to download...
Give it time (Score:3, Insightful)
Not quite (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Not quite (Score:3, Insightful)
And that is one reason to stop watching TV (Score:5, Insightful)
With all the crap on TV these days, and things like this coming into play, I can only hope people will at least reduce the amount of tv they watch.
TIvO? (Score:4, Insightful)
Guess we'll have to pay extra "taxes" or "licensing fees" or rent our TVs from now on since apparently you can't do anything with things you buy now.
When will this stop!
Easy solution... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Easy solution... (Score:3, Interesting)
The connection between $DEVICE and $DISPLAY will be an encrypted HDCP/HDMA connection. You cannot connect your black box in the middle of that chain, without the HDCP/HDMA devices throwing a hissy fit and refusing to send their signal.
Of course, when I said this was coming last year, and two years ago, people said I was nuts.
Well, here it is, folks. Enjoy.
TV's future? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:TV's future? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah one can make decent home movies and wedding videos... maybe even videos of some live performances and sporting events (well, some sporting events...). But do you really think those will have a wide audience as to compete with commercially produced content?
Re:TV's future? (Score:3, Insightful)
Hardly surprising. (Score:3, Insightful)
With TV, the only way to force people to accept unreasonable controls is to legislate... but fucking with something that virtually everyone does on a daily basis (rather than MP3s, still something the voting middle-aged and elderly populations aren't entirely au fait with) is going to score them some serious heat and scrutiny.
We can but hope, anyway...
No they will NOT control my television set (Score:5, Insightful)
These MPAA people are determined to follow in the footsteps of RIAA. Crappy content, obnoxious protection, struggling for more and more control over media that has less and less content. Pretty soon they will control 100% of nothing.
Video Out? Thats all you need... (Score:4, Informative)
So long as you have that, you can make a recording.
Yes they can try to put restrictions on it (like Macrovision does) but like Macrovision it will be fairly easy to circumvent. So don't go crazy yet... unless you live in the USA that is, where the DMCA would make it illegal
Its all very simple... (Score:5, Insightful)
My point being is that the TV/MPAA industry is bound and determined to make money whatever way they can in order to both profit and to 'subsidize' 'providing' broadcast television. This typically means advertising. It is up to you to determine whether you will put up with restrictions or not. The problem is that all of us viewers allow these corporations to do what they want because its not worth 'your time'. That's your choice.. your time. These days I am chosing to not use TV anymore. I live with the lack of entertainment.. but I am finding my way with.. gasp.. reading... exercise... developing social networks for work, friends, and family.
Its amazing what you can do when you plug those 4 to 8 hours a day into something other than watching television.
Admittedly there are a lot of folks quite happy to do so... hoorah for them. They've made their choice whether they actively did so or not.
Get rid of it (Score:5, Insightful)
I have not missed a darn thing.
There is too much in life to enjoy without
having a TV.
How can the MPAA control the empty space where
your TV is not?
Re:Get rid of it (Score:5, Insightful)
I also bet that anytime someone mentions a TV show, you chime in with "$TV_show? Never hear of it. I don't even own a TV. Haven't since May, 1978. You really should get rid of your TV, etc."
Re:Get rid of it (Score:5, Funny)
http://www.theonion.com/onion3604/doesnt_own_tele
Complete Series on DVD (Score:3, Interesting)
In case you've forgotten... (Score:5, Insightful)
What television? (Score:3, Insightful)
News flash: YOU DON'T NEED THE TV. There's plenty of OTHER things you could be doing- personally, I hate the thing and see it as an incredible waste of extremely valuable time. Gathering 'round with friends for a John Carpenter marathon is nice social thing, but watching TV alone is like going to the movies or a restaurant alone- an asocial act of mental masturbation.
I stopped watching TV for several reasons- most of it was shit, I didn't want to pay out the ass for 50 channels I don't want to get the three I do, and I REALLY HATE the advertising- specifically the difference in audio levels and overall brightness.
I don't miss TV at all. With technology like this being pushed, I miss it even less. I'll stick with software DVD playback once or twice a month, so I can watch movies and comment about how {good|bad} they are on IRC at the same time. Good use of existing hardware, excellent monetary savings (one of my machines has RCA/S inputs, so it's not like I need a TV for my old Nintendo, either...)
Waste of time, misuse of public trust (Score:4, Insightful)
And it will be. You don't think "techno-geeks" will be able to tweak the firmware on the capture cards to ignore the flag?
The only thing this does is take away consumers rights to timeshift this digital content. I should be able to capture the 6'Oclock movie and watch it at midnight - not in some lossy second rate format, but exactly how it originally aired. Did the courts not already decide this?
If they dont want me watching this material, why the fuck are they broadcasting it? The push medium, the your-life-revolves-around-our-schedule school of thought within the cult of TV is ending. With all the PVRs out there, on demand programming from the cable company, etc, people are watching what they want and when they want.
The silver lining? This will probably bite them in the ass. Less people will see flagged movies/shows, which means less ratings, which means less advertising dollars, which makes the movies/shows worth less.
I bet you'll see the flag off by default almost all the time. Except guaranteed captive audiences, like live sports events.
They'll never control mine (Score:3, Insightful)
Software Tuners Are The Way "Out" (Score:5, Informative)
Thus the GNU project brings us an open source software tuner, which is not subject to regulation, and can tune/record HDTV.
Check out these HDTV screen shots:
http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuradio/hdtv-sampl
Sadly, the software controlled tuner cards, powerful processor, DRAM, wide screen monitor, good computer stereo, etc put this toy out of the reach of most geeks - for now.
I don't think they need to worry. (Score:5, Funny)
The no-channel-change flag (Score:3, Interesting)
If you've watched at least three minutes of a program, you will be prohibited from changing the channel during the next commercial. Mute, power off, and volume reduction will also be disabled. User control returns after three minutes of commercials or when released by the broadcaster.
This prevents people from stealing program content by not watching the commercials.
Really that big a deal? (Score:4, Interesting)
If it ever gets to the truely annoying point where you can't do anything but sit in front of the TV and watch it real time, there will be a whole slew of hacks to dissable this on your various hardware pieces.
This strikes me as something like the region code for DVDs. Annoying, but if you really care, you can get around it.
Yes, it would be nice to deal with this from the top by eliminating stupidity from policy making, but certainly not the end of the world if it happens.
My 2 cents.
Hollywood's bet on Bandwidth Bloat... (Score:3, Interesting)
A digital TV station has an effective throughput of about 6 mbps, which is faster than the typical consumer download connection, and much faster than the typical consumer upload speed. The advantage is that the 6 mbps can be fully compressed before they send it out, so the uncompressed version is something like 18 to 24 mbps of data depending on the exact standard being used.
What the so called "Broadcast Flag" (a term I don't like either, it's really an Anti-digital-copy Flag) does is it orders the decyrpting device to shutdown its digital outputs, but it's still allowed to use analog outs to its heart's content...
Now, here's the catch, MPEG is designed to be a process that's easy on the decode side, and puts as much of the processor load as possible on the encoding side. So, your MPEG will never be as good as one the studios can afford to make, which means your 6 mbps file is going to look worse than the one on TV... and you might even end up with a bigger file with less quality than the one that was broadcast.
When it comes down to it, TiVo has always honored that rule as best they could, trying to make digital extraction out of its machines as hard as they could. That was always the "forbidden hack" on the TiVo-sponsored forums. Now, that hack's going to become illegal.
So really, they're doing nothing to close the analog hole, except for the fact that they realize that passing through the analog hole will always result in either quality loss or bandwidth bloat or both.
TV Logos (Score:3, Informative)
Slippery Slope (Score:5, Insightful)
As bad as DVD players (Score:4, Insightful)
Powell to the People: Drop Dead! (Score:4, Insightful)
Baaaaaa, Baaaaaa! (Score:4, Insightful)
The American public today is an amorphous mass of market share, whose job is to respond to advertising and other stimuli, not to complain or initiate any meaningful action. So don't expect the masses to jump up and say, "NO, I don't want a crippled television!" Expect them to say, "Does it have SurroundSound?" and, "How much is the Big one?"
Baaaaaa, baaaaaaa... Moooooo....
Disable it in your OWN TV and you'll get sued! (Score:5, Informative)
Look for the MPAA to use the DMCA to sue anyone who disables the "anti-copy" circuit.
Or even worse than that, look for them to illegally sue anyone who purchases anything, like a soldering iron, that could be used to disable it.
Don't believe me? Look at how (1) [directvdefense.org] (2) [lawyers.com] DirecTV [directv.com] is warping the DMCA in its own image. Sueing people for merely purchasing [slashdot.org] a smartcard reader!
Only 22,000+ people [overhauser.com] sued so far!
Watch for the MPAA to start this next, just like the RIAA [slashdot.org] and DirecTV [slashdot.org] have.It's even worse... (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.tvtechnology.com/features/Masked-Eng
Second, the article implies that broadcast flags will only protect high definition programming. That is not true. Broadcasters will even be able to place flags on public domain programming.
http://www.tvtechnology.com/features/Masked-Eng
It's a simple fact that in a few years, we will be unable to copy a TV show without breaking the law.
they said it would happen... (Score:5, Insightful)
all your base are belong to us.
Haven't we seen this before? (Score:4, Interesting)
(Incidentally, the previews are a complete waste of space and time as they hold very little meaning years after those movies have been released. How many times do people need to be forced to watch previews for Planet of the Apes?)
Japan doing this next month (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Time to drag out this old chestnut, It might ap (Score:5, Funny)
and I didn't speak up,
because I wasn't an offshore DVD pirate.
Then they came for the Kazaa users,
and I didn't speak up,
because I didn't use Kazaa.
Then they came for the VHS copiers,
and I didn't speak up,
because I still used Betemax.
Then they came for me,
and I turned off the set.
Re:Obligatory Comment (Score:3, Funny)
How can we get that technology over here??
Re:It Figures - My Bad Timing (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:TV Licenses in the UK (Score:4, Informative)